Viewpoint 4/3/08

Don’t hack away
at the trees
Way to go Davison DPW. You unleashed the “chainsaw massacre of trees” on Collingwood Estates.

We now have maple trees that only have the upper branches — even some of them are trimmed out — and now all the trees look like elm trees.

It is clear that the young man was totally unsupervised and should have had someone with him who has knowledge of forestry. He certainly enjoyed the working of his chainsaw.

I know the problem was with some lower branches cracking your truck windshields as you drove down the streets, but it would have made more sense to locate the problems and trim them out.

Come take a look ... even the new three-year plantings have all their lower half-inch or smaller branches removed. They were such a threat to your trucks, four feet from the curb. Disgusting. — Alyce Heldt, Davison

Animal cruelty appalling:
so is the response from police
I am writing because I am very upset and hope that upon reading this, you will be as well.
My husband works at Outdoor Adventures Lakeshore Resort. He has been a maintenance man there for four years. He said that on the Monday after Easter he was talking to a security guard there and she said that on Easter she had to work and her husband had called her that evening panicked. He told her that they had to take their small dog to the emergency vet.

He had put the dog out in their back yard to do its business before bed, and upon entering the house he heard the dog scream and yelp. He ran outside to see what was wrong and saw that a neighbor had their dog by the neck and was slicing up the dog’s back with a butcher’s knife.
He got the dog away from the neighbor and called the police. When the police arrived, they advised that they were doing nothing about it and that the couple could go downtown and obtain a personal protection order if they chose to do that. The police did not arrest the man. I find that appalling. The dog almost died and had to have 38 stitches up its back.

It is hard for me to believe that the police force would take no action in defense of such a callous act. It gives anyone the OK to go around slicing up any family pet, as there will be no consequence for it.

I feel it is my responsibility to bring this to everyone’s attention. God gave us animals to love and protect. What’s next? Are they going to ignore it if a child gets assaulted like that? We have to put a stop to this kind of lax attitude. Thank you. — Peggy Deitz, Davison

Political motives should be questioned
I recently read with some skepticism a political news release article concerning the outpouring of compassion and concern by a local township trustee who, in an election year, is circulating a questionnaire asking about the wants and desires of certain residents of Richfield Township.

The article describes how this dedicated public servant will compile the results from the survey and, as a spokesman, present the wish list to the new township board that has yet to be elected. In doing this act of compassion, it appears that he is assuming that he himself will be reelected.
A hard and fast rule in politics is that you never ask thousands of people what they want or would like, without also describing in detail the tax increases that would be required to pay for any development or increased services. This survey neglects to describe this fact.

The news release went on in detail to describe the personal financial cost in postage of this effort by the trustee, so that the electors could equate and gauge in dollars and cents the affection and concern that this person has so recently developed.

If you believe that this trustee’s legitimate concern, which has surfaced in this election year, will truly continue to represent the interests of Richfield Township residents after the November election, then you will have the opportunity to elect him.

But, thereafter, I believe his past cavalier, along-for-the-ride attitude and political maneuvering will again be his service reward to Richfield Township. — Phillip Schneider, Richfield Twp.